The typical Christmas tree stand involves an assembly including a trunk receptacle and legs or braces mounted to the receptacle and radiating therefrom. The legs usually support the receptacle above the floor surface. This raises the gravitational center of the tree, increasing its tendency to tip. Individual legs oppose tipping only within the area at which they contact the floor. Another problem with such stands has been storage. Often, the legs must be removed to reduce storage space requirements. Dismantling and assembling the stands thus becomes a tedious project and loss of parts becomes a very real possibility.
The above problems have been answered to a limited degree by development of Christmas tree stands that make use of a large planar support surface resting against the floor surface and defining the bottom side of a large water reservoir. A tree trunk receptacle is usually carried above the large support surface. Examples of such stands are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,855,762; 2,044,192; and 2,337,914.
Examples of improved "leg" type tree stands are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,261,138; 4,159,096; and 2,609,169.
Though the stands disclosed in the above-cited references are serviceable, there still remains a need for a unitized Christmas tree stand requiring no significant assembly and, thus, no loose parts. There is also a need for such a stand with improved tree support capability; and that will take up a minimum of storage space, both for the user and for shipping and retailing purposes.